Balance Class for Seniors - Your Thoughts?

Hi everyone. I received my CPT through NASM a couple of months ago, but I'm not yet practicing. I'm wrapping up my Senior Fitness Studies and talking with the local Y about doing some volunteer training. Meanwhile, in an attempt to gain more hands-on experience, I had an idea of teaching a senior balance class for my town's recreation department. They currently don't have anything like that, and I think it would be beneficial for our older residents. The town's very interested, but now I have a few questions and wanted to solicit your opinions. First off, is it appropriate for a CPT to even teach a balance class for seniors? I wasn't sure if this was exclusively the domain of PT's or other health-care folks. Secondly, I don't yet have my liability insurance but will obtain it before working with anyone ... but will regular liability insurance suffice for teaching a group class? Third: Even though this won't be a strenuous class, I'm wondering about the older clientele as far as cardiac issues go. I just asked the town if they had an AED, and they didn't even know what it was. How big of a concern should this be? Finally, I imagine getting full-blown medical histories is kind of out of the question for a park & recreation class, but should I ask for liability waivers from each participant? Any other advice for me? Thanks everyone.

Answers (10)

Balance is important for everyone. Great idea...it will be all in how you market your classes. Branding is anything and everything.

At the age of 20 -individuals start loosing balance. As an independent instructor - Liability is a big concern when dealing with anyone, but especially seniors. If you are considering working at your local Y.. you should be asking about what type of life saving equipment do they have. Work out logistics with your local Y. If this Y does not know what an AED is this would be a big concern. . Maybe they don't know the acronym.

If you are doing this training on a volunteer basis you should definitely have a liability waiver for all participants to sign. Also, you should consider liability insurance - unless you work out things with your local Y. I'm sure the Y has participants sign a liability form...but just in case. You need to do it yourself.

I use to work at a local park & rec department as an independent fitness consultant. I left because they would not honor my Limited Liability Company a.k.a. LLC (As a fitness consultant - I teach at multiple places.. I protect my assets by going under a LLC -sole proprietor of a business.) There is a huge liability when working with these types of facilities. These types of facilities have a some types of agreements when someone comes in to teach for them. I suggest you talk with management about expectations, how they handle injuries, what type of liability do they have them sign. How are you protected as a volunteer.

Make a list of questions - You should probably have something in your NASM materials to reference too.

Based upon what you are saying..the Y would probably be a better option if you are volunteering. If your goal is to eventually be paid... then "do not give your services away for free".

You say you approached your town's park and rec. dept. for this. I would suggest looking to see if your town has a senior center, and what programs they offer. At our town these two functions come under different departments. The senior center offers a wide variety of programs. Actually the senior center offers chair and regular yoga through instructors that come out of the local Y, so insurance and so on is tied in there.

You probably do want to have a plan in place before teaching, even for volunteer work. It would likely be useful to talk to a lawyer.... a good investment, as they can tell you about the laws that relate to setting up and running a business, as well as what forms you need, and tax liabilities.

Plenty of people trained as personal trainers teach group, but it is something to talk to your insurance company and your lawyer about as well. Understanding scope of practice within your state, and with reference to where and how you plan to work is useful. If you intend to work with groups a lot, rather than more with one on one situations, it might be worthwhile to look into taking a group ex. cert. as well. With your training recent you shouldn't have a huge problem passing the necessary tests.

I teach a lot of seniors, and I teach a lot of balance, and not just to seniors. It is a huge part of how I teach yoga. I always tell them I would rather them explore what it feels like to start to loose balance and how to keep balance in class than on the stairs.

One of the biggest differences with a group when the group is older is that you need to assure safety.... people need something to hold on to, and you never want more people than you can monitor safely.

I suspect your Y runs a number of programs for this group.... there are a lot of them out there. I would also suggest if you work there getting a class schedule and sitting in on as many as you can to see how different teachers handle it.

Cathy brought up a very valid points. Working with municipalities and all their rules can be tricky. Your regular CPT liability insurance should cover you for the class you are planning, though.

As for AEDs: yes, they would be wonderful to have as a general point but a class like the one you are planning is not likely to raise heart rates into aerobic zones. You can also screen the participants with a PAR-Q in addition to a liability waiver (which is a must, and which the parks & rec and Y would also require). That should further reduce the risk for a cardiac event.

Depending on the size of the class, you cannot possibly know all health histories but I would ask for those that can impact balance beyond normal disuse, eg. joint replacements, neuropathies, etc. I would also envision that each participant would have a chair to use, and you can easily encourage people to hold on to it to begin with.

Another thing to consider is to have certain pre-reqs for attending your class. You could say that participants need to have the ability to get on and off the floor unattended, for example. This will prevent you from having people in class with such a wide variety of abilities that are difficult to manage.

A balance class is an excellent program. And not just for seniors. The sooner and more frequently balance and stability are trained, the more effective the results will be.

Double check your liability coverage with the company. If it isn't covered under your current policy, it may something that can be added for a small fee.

I would at a minimum get a risk and release waiver signed to show that the potential for unfortunate outcomes were shared with the participants. Getting a health history isn't that hard to do either. I always have both filled out and signed before a client begins any of my programs, even my instructor courses.

All recreational facilities should have an AED on site. And it should be a requirement that all staff are CPR/AED/First Aid certified. This is the industry standard now. To not comply opens a facility up to law suits.

Thanks, Cathy. I should clarify: It's my local park & rec department that didn't know what a defribrillator is. I thought that was a concern since they do offer a few other senior fitness classes. And yes, I'd be teaching for them as a volunteer. As for the Y, I'm sure they have AED's. Also, they said they'd extend their liability coverage to me if I were training for them, whether paid or not.

Thanks again to everyone for their valuable insights. Based on the answers I received here, I put in an inquiry to the town regarding what kind of waiver they require from participants and what kind of liability coverage they offer teachers. The answers I received made me want to pause until I've gotten more information. Meanwhile, I'm proceeding with the Y in hopes of getting more hands-on experience.

I'd really like to hear how this ended up. One of my small-group classes is comprised of clients in their 60's and 70's and although I include several balance and stability exercises in each class, I've been asked to put together a balance workshop / exercise plan.

Hi Nancy. I'm afraid I don't have an ending to the story for you ... not yet, anyway. I ended up not pursuing the senior class for the local community. Instead, I volunteered for six months as a coach at the Y, and I'm now working for a small private gym that serves primarily older adults in a one-on-one setting. The senior class is on the back burner for now.